The TARDIS lands on a planet where the population is divided into two
warring factions: the barbaric Sevateem and the brilliant Tesh. The
Doctor himself is regarded as a demon by the Sevateem, and to the Time
Lord's consternation, he discovers that a giant carving of the Evil One
is in fact a replica of his own head. With the help of a Sevateem
warrior named Leela, the Doctor discovers that the Sevateem god, Xoanon,
is really a schizophrenic computer, whose malfunction is the fault of
the Doctor himself.

Production

In early 1975, the Doctor Who production office received an
unsolicited submission entitled “The Silent Scream” from a
part-time scriptwriter named Chris Boucher. Although he was a lifelong
fan of science-fiction, Boucher's credits to date had mainly been
confined to comedy programmes such as Braden's Week, Dave
Allen At Large and Romany Jones. “The Silent
Scream”, though unusable, prompted Doctor Who producer
Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes to work with Boucher
on more suitable concepts.

Many of Boucher's ideas dealt with a civilisation which had evolved
abnormally over the course of generations, and so two of his efforts --
“The Dreamers Of Phados” and “The Mentor
Conspiracy” -- were set on a giant colony ship. Finally, however,
Hinchcliffe recommended that Boucher instead transfer his storyline to a
planetary setting, and also devised the notion of the Doctor discovering
his own face carved into a mountainside. He and Holmes thought that it
would be interesting to have an adventure which would explore the
consequences of the Doctor's travels through time and space. With these
concepts in mind, Boucher began working on “The Tower Of
Imelo”. This was finally commissioned as a four-part storyline on
August 19th, under the revised title “Prime Directive” (or
“The Prime Directive”).

Chris Boucher envisaged Leela as a mix of Palestinian
terrorist Leila Khaled and Emma Peel from The
Avengers

In writing “Prime Directive”, Boucher was inspired by many
of the science-fiction stories he had adored since childhood: Aldous
Huxley's 1932 classic Brave New World influenced Boucher's ideas
about how the Sevateem religion had evolved, while he drew upon Harry
Harrison's 1969 novel Captive Universe for the element of an
insane computer. For a supporting Sevateem character called Leela (who,
like the tribe leader Andor, had also appeared in the outline for
“The Mentor Conspiracy”), Boucher envisaged a mix of
Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled (whose name he also borrowed) and
Diana Rigg's dynamic Emma Peel from The Avengers. On January
27th, 1976, full scripts for the serial were requested, now using the
title “The Day God Went Mad”.

By this stage, it was known that Elisabeth Sladen would be leaving
Doctor Who early in Season Fourteen, and Hinchcliffe and Holmes
had decided that no new permanent companion would be introduced right
away. Instead, Boucher was told to develop one character who could fill
that role for the duration of “The Day God Went Mad”. To
this end, Boucher began expanding the role of a male Sevateem warrior
named Loke. However, while reading the draft of Boucher's script for
part two in mid-March, Hinchcliffe became engaged by Leela, and he asked
the writer to concentrate on her instead. Leela duly took over many of
the duties intended for Loke, and the latter was subsequently renamed
Tomas.

To this point, the predominant idea for the next ongoing companion had
come from Holmes. He was eager to commission a “Jack the
Ripper”-style story set in Victorian London, and wanted to use it
as a vehicle to introduce a street urchin whom the Doctor could take in.
Holmes thought that the Doctor could then educate her over the course of
Season Fifteen, in the manner of Eliza Doolittle from George Bernard
Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion (further popularised in the 1964 film
adaptation My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex
Harrison). At one point, it appears that Holmes hoped “The
Gaslight Murders” by Basil Dawson would fill this role, but it
was quickly abandoned. Holmes next planned to feature a Victorian-era
story as the season finale; this meant that the Doctor would have to
remain on his own for both “The Day God Went Mad” and the
serial which would follow it into production.

Philip Hinchcliffe was not opposed to the idea of a street
urchin companion, but preferred a strong, more relatable character

However, while he was not opposed to Holmes' idea, Hinchcliffe preferred
a strong, more relatable female protagonist. In the self-confident but
primitive and childlike Leela, both the producer and the script editor
were presented with a character who could satisfy both their needs. This
quality took on a new importance following Holmes' scripting of the
preceding adventure, The Deadly Assassin,
during which he found that writing for the solo Doctor was very
taxing.

In mid-June, Hinchcliffe and Holmes decided that Leela should be
retained for at least one more story, leaving open the possibility that
they might still follow the original plan of introducing the Victorian
companion in the season's final serial. Since only Boucher was familiar
with Leela, they commissioned a second adventure from him, called The Robots Of Death. As a means of further
developing their new regular character, Holmes suggested that Leela
possess some sort of supernatural powers, which he thought might be
inherited from a witch-priestess grandmother. Boucher was not fond of
this idea, and instead opted to grant her a sort of sixth sense for
danger.

By now, however, both Hinchcliffe and Holmes were considering leaving
Doctor Who after Season Fourteen, and there was concern that if
the new production team did not like Holmes' street urchin character
then considerable work would have been expended for little gain.
Consequently, it was decided that Leela should remain with the Doctor
for at least a third adventure, the last of the current schedule.

By July, Boucher's initial commission gained its final title of The
Face Of Evil. Serial 4Q would be directed by Pennant Roberts, whose
earlier credits included episodes of Doomwatch, Survivors
and Softly, Softly: Task Force. In its “Eliza
Doolittle” incarnation, Twiggy -- a former phenomenon in the
modelling world who had recently earned a Golden Globe Award for The
Boy Friend -- had been mooted for the role of the new companion, but
this did not come to pass. Consequently, Roberts began auditioning sixty
actresses to play Leela. Amongst the fifty-nine unsuccessful applicants
was Pamela Salem, who was instead offered voicework on The Face Of
Evil, as well as the prominent part of Toos in The Robots Of Death.

Her blue eyes deemed inappropriate for the savage Leela,
Louise Jameson would have to wear brown contact lenses

The actress ultimately hired to play Leela was Louise Jameson. Jameson's
resume included considerable stagework, plus the horror film Disciple
Of Death. On television, she had appeared in programmes such as
Emmerdale Farm, Z Cars and Space: 1999; she had
also been shortlisted for the role of Purdey on The New Avengers.
On August 27th, Jameson was engaged for fourteen episodes of Doctor
Who, encompassing the three remaining serials of the season. Her
contract included a provision that required she wear brown contact
lenses, as it was felt that her blue eyes were not appropriate for the
savage character she would be portraying. For the same reason, it was
decided that Jameson would wear make-up to darken her skin. Originally,
this make-up was a very deep brown colour, but it was eventually made
lighter to produce Leela's final look; the darker shade was still
visible in several publicity photos, however.

No location filming was carried out for The Face Of Evil;
instead, seven days were spent at the Ealing Television Film Studios,
beginning on September 20th. Tom Baker greeted Jameson frostily as they
started working together: he objected in general to being saddled with a
new companion, but in particular to a character who wore a distractingly
brief costume and exhibited violent tendencies that he felt were
inappropriate in Doctor Who. Baker grudgingly accepted Jameson
when he was told that Leela was only due to appear in a trio of
stories.

The first three days of filming at Ealing took place on the jungle set.
September 23rd and 24th then took in the action in the Horda Pit, with
the latter day also encompassing more jungle material. After a break for
the weekend, the 27th and 28th completed the jungle filming; the last
day was not originally a part of the shooting schedule, but had to be
added when several scenes could not be finished in time.

All studio work for The Face Of Evil took place at BBC Television
Centre Studio 3, and began with a two-day session on October 11th and
12th. The first day saw most of part one recorded, along with scenes in
the jungle for parts two and four which had not already been captured at
Ealing. The next day was occupied with effects work, alongside most of
the outstanding episode two material and the sole remaining sequence in
Neeva's sanctum for episode three.

Louise Jameson's photocall on October 26th had to be
hastily arranged after news of her casting broke the night before

Recording wrapped up with a three-day block from October 24th to 26th.
The 24th was largely devoted to scenes outside and within the titular
Face, although time was also spent on part three material in the control
room and the particle analyser. For the episode three cliffhanger,
Xoanon's line “Who am I?” had been recorded by twelve
year-old Anthony Frieze, a pupil at the school where Roberts' wife
worked as a teacher. The next day finished off the extant material for
this episode and moved on to a small amount of recording for part four.
The remainder of the concluding script was then performed on the
26th.

On the same day that studio taping wrapped up, a photocall for Louise
Jameson was held. This event had to be hastily arranged after the
Evening Standard broke the news of her casting the night before.
Originally, Leela's debut was intended to air on November 27th, with
The Face Of Evil then completing its run before a one-week
Christmas break. However, with Holmes forced to assume the writing
duties for the season finale, The Talons Of
Weng-Chiang, at short notice, it was decided to give the
production team some breathing room by deferring The Face Of Evil
until the New Year. As a result, Leela finally made her first on-screen
appearance on January 1st, 1977.